Clearing Out Abcrs Before Starting Tysabri MS Treatments

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How long must you be off the ABCR drugs before you can start treatment with Tysabri (natalizumab)?

There has been no published data to tell us how long you must be off the ABCR drugs before you can start treatment with Tysabri. In my discussion with many other neurologists, a likely consensus is that most neurologists will be stopping these drugs for at least a month before Tysabri is started. If a patient with MS is on more aggressive chemotherapy drugs such as Novantrone (mitoxantrone), methotrexate or Imuran (azathioprine), then many neurologists feel that stopping these drugs for at least six months due to their long-term effects before starting Tysabri would likely be appropriate. However, there is no published data to tell us exactly how long a patient should be off any of these drugs before starting Tysabri, and that would be an individual treatment decision with the patient and their neurologist.

Multiple sclerosis expert Dr. Patrick Parcells is a neurologist at Hampton Roads Neurology, Inc. in Newport News, Virginia. He has served as president for the Virginia Neurological Society, and has studied epidemiological research on multiple sclerosis.

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